Linux-based GameGadget wants to become the iPod of classic portable gaming

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Anyone who wants to game on the go has a number of choices. There’s the Nintendo DS and 3DS, the PSP or the upcoming PS Vita, and then the growing competition from App Store and Android Market games running on smartphones or media players. Is there room for yet another platform? GameGadget hopes there is.

GameGadget is a portable gaming device that looks a lot like the Game Boy Micro or GP2X Wiz. Other than that we know very little beyond an interesting take on attracting games to its service.

The creator of GameGadget, Jason Cooper, has decided to setup a service a lot like the App Store, where games are offered for download directly to the device. But there is no emphasis on creating games specifically for the hardware platform. Instead, the GameGadget will run games from a range of now defunct consoles. We have to assume the hardware runs emulators from many older platforms.

Cooper is inviting owners of older games to allow them to be sold on the GameGadget online store, known as the GameGadgetGames platform. The desirable bit for game rights holders is they need do nothing to the original games. They will be sold and run just like they did on the original platform, so this could be easy money for them.

There is a big IF to this equation, though. It doesn’t matter how many games you offer for a device if no one buys the hardware to play them on. The GameGadget is set to be released in January next year and will cost around $160. That’s only slightly less than you’ll pay for a 3DS, and more than a DS. There’s no information yet on how much the games will cost.

Aside from offering a new lease of life for older games, Cooper also intends to make developing directly for the platform as easy as possible. The GameGadget runs a Linux OS, and can therefore be developed for using the same libraries including the very popular Simple Directmedia Layer (SDL).

Can an unknown platform with no real guarantee of a healthy gaming library break into a market dominated by Nintendo, Sony, and increasingly Apple? It’s doubtful, but a very strong line up of classic games running as they were intended on their original systems may gain a few sales. I’d much rather see the cost of the hardware below $100, though.